CRAIG CONLEY (Prof. Oddfellow) is recognized by Encarta as “America’s most creative and diligent scholar of letters, words and punctuation.” He has been called a “language fanatic” by Page Six gossip columnist Cindy Adams, a “cult hero” by Publisher’s Weekly, a “monk for the modern age” by George Parker, and “a true Renaissance man of the modern era, diving headfirst into comprehensive, open-minded study of realms obscured or merely obscure” by Clint Marsh. An eccentric scholar, Conley’s ideas are often decades ahead of their time. He invented the concept of the “virtual pet” in 1980, fifteen years before the debut of the popular “Tamagotchi” in Japan. His virtual pet, actually a rare flower, still thrives and has reached an incomprehensible size. Conley’s website is OneLetterWords.com.
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Abecedarian personal effects of 'a mad genius'
A Turkish Delight of musings on languages, deflations of metaphysics, vauntings of arcana, and great visual humor.

Found 23 posts tagged ‘desert’

Restoring the Lost Sense – April 25, 2029 (permalink)

From Foundations of Botany by Joseph Bergen, 1901.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #horse #1900s #desert #illustration #yucca #mohave
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 22, 2028 (permalink)

[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #1920s #desert #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 2, 2028 (permalink)

From Moving Ahead by Hildreth et al. and illustrated by Malvern & Highsmith, 1945.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #1940s #desert #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 1, 2028 (permalink)

From People of Early Times by E. Davies, 1939.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #well #desert #illustration #oasis
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 13, 2028 (permalink)

From At Home in Distant Lands by Ernest Young, 1890.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #sahara #camel #1890s #desert #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – March 31, 2027 (permalink)

From Trailing Our Animal Friends by Nida & Nida, 1928.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #1920s #desert #illustration
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Images Moving Through Time – February 2, 2027 (permalink)

> read more from Images Moving Through Time . . .
#vintage photo #cactus #arizona #desert #photo
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The Right Word – December 13, 2025 (permalink)

From Preparatory Book to Accompany Wide Wings by Gates, Huber & Peardon, 1939.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#vintage illustration #desert #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – August 19, 2025 (permalink)

From Where Our Ways of Living Come From by Howard Wilson, 1940.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #1940s #desert #illustration #caravan
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Restoring the Lost Sense – November 18, 2024 (permalink)

"Peanut butter!"  From The Old Line, 1933.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #desert #peanut butter #dry mouth
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Restoring the Lost Sense – September 5, 2024 (permalink)

From Trailing Our Animal Friends by Nida & Nida, 1928.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #sand storm #1920s #desert #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – July 19, 2024 (permalink)

From Appleton's Fifth Reader by Harris, Rickoff & Bailey, 1885.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #camel #desert #illustration
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Restoring the Lost Sense – October 17, 2023 (permalink)

From This Labyrinthine Life, A Tale of the Arizona Desert by George Alexander Fischer, 1907.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #piano #arizona #pianist #desert
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I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought – August 23, 2023 (permalink)

The desert as a dry version of the Fountain of Youth.  From This Labyrinthine Life, A Tale of the Arizona Desert by George Alexander Fischer, 1907.
> read more from I Found a Penny Today, So Here's a Thought . . .
#fountain of youth #desert
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Strange Dreams – July 24, 2023 (permalink)

"He sometimes toyed with the fancy that the genii had awakened him with the express purpose of showing him the beauty of the desert night, a beauty baffling description, and which alone, it seemed to him, was worth the journey hither."  From This Labyrinthine Life, A Tale of the Arizona Desert by George Alexander Fischer, 1907.

If you have a strange dream to share, send it along!
> read more from Strange Dreams . . .
#vintage illustration #insomnia #starry night #night #desert #can't sleep
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Yearbook Weirdness – June 29, 2023 (permalink)

From Ball State University's 1928 yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #horse #vintage yearbook #yearbook #desert
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Images Moving Through Time – June 13, 2023 (permalink)

INSTRUCTIONS: Shift between variations of the book cover. From Mystery in the Desert by Jack Woolgar.

From Mystery in the Desert by Jack Woolgar
> read more from Images Moving Through Time . . .
#skeleton #vintage book #book #desert #gif
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Yearbook Weirdness – December 7, 2021 (permalink)

From the United States Naval Academy's 1940 yearbook.

*For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.
> read more from Yearbook Weirdness . . .
#vintage illustration #horse #vintage yearbook #yearbook #cowboy #desert #mesa
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Restoring the Lost Sense – April 27, 2021 (permalink)

"Out where the trails of men are dim and far apart."  From The Lure of the Dim Trails by B. M. Bower, 1907.
[Inexplicable images from generations ago invite us to restore the lost sense of immediacy.  We follow the founder of the Theater of Spontaneity, Jacob Moreno, who proposed stringing together "now and then flashes" to unfetter illusion and let imagination run free.  The images we have collected for this series came at a tremendous price, which we explained previously.]
> read more from Restoring the Lost Sense . . .
#vintage illustration #wolf #coyote #desert
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The Right Word – November 13, 2019 (permalink)

"We moved through dark and desert ways."  From Manual and Diagrams to Accompany Metcalf's Grammars, 1901.
> read more from The Right Word . . .
#sentence diagram #desert
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